Lipschutz, Ronnie D. : University of California, Santa Cruz
Ronnie D. Lipschutz is Professor of Politics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he teaches courses
on foreign policy, international politics, global environmental politics, ecological philosophy, and Cold War film
and fiction. He is the Associate Director of the Center for Global, International, and Regional Studies at UCSC
and Chair of the Environmental Studies Section of the International Studies Association. Lipschutz has degrees
in physics from the University of Texas-Austin and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. from
the Energy and Resources Group at U.C. Berkeley. Lipschutz is the author of, most recently, Global Civil Society
and Global Environmental Governance--The Politics of Nature from Place to Planet (SUNY Press, 1996), After Authority--War,
Peace, and Global Politics in the 21st Century (SUNY Press, 2000), and Film, Fiction, and the Cold War: Popular
Culture and Foreign Policy During America's Half-Century (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001). He is editor of On Security
(Columbia, 1995), co-editor (with Ken Conca) of The State and Social Power in Global Environmental Politics (Columbia,
1993), and co-editor (with Beverly Crawford) of The Myth of "Ethnic Conflict"--Politics, Economics, and
"Cultural" Violence (International and Area Studies, UC-Berkeley, 1998).
Review
"Lipschutz has written an exemplary text on the politics of the global environment. It combines intellectual
rigor with comparative breadth, and theoretical sophistication with rich illustrative case studies. Global Environmental
Politics takes on in a compelling way the most pressing issues in green politics: the relations between neoliberalism
and the environment, transnational civil society and environmental sustainability, globalization and green governance,
epistemology and green practice. It is a major contribution to the understanding of the state of the environment
in the 21st century and a powerful exhortation to critically rethink the local-global politics of Nature. It should
be widely used in courses across the social and environmental sciences."
-- Michael Watts, University of California, Berkeley
"Lipschutz provides an imaginative and sweeping critique of the concepts that underlie individual decisions
that have international and global environmental effects, and of the concepts that underlie most analyses of policies
intended to redress these circumstances. The strength of the book is that it highlights the assumptions that go
into common descriptions and analyses of environmental problems. Basically, Lipschutz asks, 'Why do bad environmental
things happen when good or indifferent people make decisions?'"
-- Peter Haas, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
"Students and teachers alike will be grateful for the refreshing clarity and penetrating insight this book
brings to some of the most challenging issues of our time. Rare is the book that can truly bridge theory and practice,
simultaneously edifying and empowering its readers. This book does both, constructing multiple bridges--between
international relations and green theory, between ethics and economics, between self and world--in a most accessible
and creative way. The author manages to delve into the subtleties of political economy, environmental ethics, globalization,
and social movement theory, integrating a wide swath of theoretical literature into very practical analyses of
such issues as climate change, watershed restoration, and genetic modification. The result is one of the most innovative
and comprehensive books on global environmental politics ever published."
-- Karen Litfin, University of Washington
CQ Press Web Site Publishing Web Site, September, 2003
Summary
Traditional views of global environmental politics take the structures and relations of international politics
as a given. Solutions to environmental problems, then, must be products of concession, negotiation, and inevitable
compromise--a world of top-down planetary management. Lipschutz challenges students to question these conventional
approaches. He argues that much light can be shed on global environmental degradation if we look beyond the politics
of conflict and cooperation and explore environmental problems from their very "roots."
Using a framework that accounts for the ontologies, material conditions, and power relations that structure global
environmental problems, Lipschutz is able to more effectively question attempts to clean up the globe and sustain
the world's natural resources. Throughout the text, the author uses compelling cases to illustrate the effects
of globalization and capitalism, yet is careful to make the link between the local and the global to show how we,
as individuals, are both consumers of goods and producers of pollution.
A powerful new approach
How is the financing of a water system in Bolivia linked to long-standing forestation practices in India?
Taking nothing for granted, the root causes of major global environmental problems are exposed and subjected
to rigorous analysis. Lipschutz shows, for instance, how privatization operates in different global contexts with
strikingly similar consequences.
In what ways are liberalism and realism actually two sides of the same coin?
Both make self-interest--of the individual and of the state--key operating terms. In a revealing comparison,
Lipschutz explores the limits of these dominant political models to effectively frame and solve environmental problems.
What kinds of political, social, and environmental practices bring about meaningful change?
By emphasizing the global impacts of local actions, the text shows how attempts to control environmental problems
may actually reproduce the very systems they are meant to ameliorate.
Extensive suggested reading lists at the end of each chapter guide students to further research, while tables
and figures elegantly show data and concepts.
The emphasis on assessing the root causes of global environmental problems and models encourages critical thinking.
Students are also encouraged to rethink their own role in the global environmental system and to get involved in
effective forms of social change.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. What Are "Global Environmental Politics?"
Bananas
Thinking about Bananas and Other Such Things
Thinking Socially
The Many Roles of Nature
Institutions for the Earth?
What's in the Rest of this Book?
Our Home Is Our Habitat, Our Habitat Is Our Home
For Further Reading
Chapter 2. "Global Environment"
Thinking Green
Philosophy, Ontology, Epistemology
Deconstructing Environmental Philosophies
Thinking Ahead
For Further Reading
Chapter 3. Capitalism, Globalization, and the Environment
Effluents and Affluence
Money, That's What I Want!
Globalization and the Environment
Want Not, Waste Not?
For Further Reading
Chapter 4. Civic Politics and Social Power: Environmental Politics "On the Ground"
All Environmental Politics Are Local
Why All Environmental Politics Are Local
The Power of Social Power
Social Power in Action
For Further Reading
Chapter 5. The National Origins of International Environmental Policies and Practices: "My Country Is in the
World"
The State and the Environment
International Environmental Regimes: The Standard Account and Some Caveats>br/> The Historical National Origins
of Environmental Internationalism
The Contemporary National Origins of Environmental (Inter)nationalism
Tales of Privatization
How International Are International Environmental Regimes?
A Successful Case of Environmental Internationalism
Are there International Environmental Politics?
For Further Reading
Chapter 6. Global Environmental Politics and You: "The World Is My Country"
Into the Streets!
Markets Are Not Politics
Toward an Environmental Ethic
Toward an Environmental Praxis
Global Environmental Politics from the Ground Up
A Final Manifesto
For Further Reading
